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The energy crisis in Cuba is no longer only hitting Cubans in their dark homes without fans. It is now also affecting foreign tourists who, during peak season, are being moved from one hotel to another due to a lack of fuel.
The testimony of a Canadian tourist, relocated along with dozens of visitors in Cayo Coco, north of Ciego de Ávila, highlights the new level of emergency that the island is facing, with hotels closing, workers losing income, and a country barely holding on while the regime attempts to salvage the only thing that still generates foreign currency.
CTV News reported on Friday that Canadian tourists are being "consolidated" in a single tourist area to save energy, amid the fuel shortage the country is experiencing.
The Canadian Vicky Volovik, who is vacationing in Cayo Coco, explained that the strategy involves concentrating guests in one hotel because “they don’t have enough fuel” and are trying to “save energy by grouping everyone in the same hotel.” She recounted that “practically the entire hotel is being relocated.”
Although she stated that she hasn't directly experienced shortages within the hotel and that there was "plenty of food," with no blackouts and services operating smoothly, the human situation she observed around her was entirely different.
Volovik described scenes of distress among Cuban workers, who suddenly see their livelihoods vanish overnight.
"I saw a lot of tears, a lot of crying," he stated. "The people are very upset because all the workers here practically lost their jobs and their livelihoods... the people here are suffering right now."
In Cayo Coco, as in other cays in northern Cuba, most employees do not live there. They travel from other areas by bus to work in hotels and largely depend on tips. When a hotel closes or reduces operations, the impact is not only job-related; it directly brings hunger to entire families.
"A large part of our income depends on tips and money from tourists, so that will disappear once the hotel closes," lamented the Canadian.
The Cuban government itself publicly acknowledged that it is implementing a “tourism compacting” strategy, closing facilities with lower occupancy and relocating visitors to other hotels to reduce energy consumption.
It was the Vice Prime Minister Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga who acknowledged on national television that the regime aims to "consolidate the poles with the greatest acceptance" to maintain the inflow of foreign currency.
Even sources from the industry confirmed to EFE that they have already started to close hotels and relocate international tourists, especially in Varadero and the northern cays of the country.
The testimony arrives just as Canada updated its travel advisory for Cuba and urged its citizens to exercise increased caution due to the worsening shortages of electricity, fuel, and basic goods.
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